Sanitary Districts Miss U.s. Deadline

October 02, 1985|By Casey Bukro, Environment writer.

Three Du Page County sewage treatment systems and the Metropolitan Sanitary District were among 16 Illinois systems that missed a Sept. 30 federal deadline for controlling toxic chemicals in sewage, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday.

Delinquents face fines of $10,000 for each day violations continue if the federal government does not approve their toxic chemical plans in a few months.

The announcement is part of a federal crackdown on municipal sewage treatment plants that do not regulate hazardous chemicals that industry dumps into sewer systems, where such wastes can explode or poison lakes and streams.

Sixty-five of 339 sewer systems in the six-state Midwestern region missed the deadline, said EPA spokesman Bob Hartian. The 65 are the 16 in Illinois, 14 in Indiana, 16 in Michigan and 19 in Ohio.

The Du Page County delinquents are Bensenville, the county Sewer District and Wood Dale.

Illinois` other delinquents are the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Greater Chicago, Antioch, Elk Grove Village, Freeport, the Glenbard Regional Sewer District, Joliet, the Metro East Sewer District of Lansdown and Cahokia, Mt. Vernon, Quincy, Sauget, the Springfield Sanitary District, Taylorville and Wood River.

The Metropolitan Sanitary District, which covers 872 square miles of Chicago and 123 suburbs, is the Midwest`s largest system to miss the deadline. It serves 5.5 million people and treats and discharges 2 billion gallons of waste water daily.

Hartian pointed out, though, that it was among five Illinois sewer systems that submitted pre-treatment plans to the EPA and hopes to have federal approval in a month.

The others are Bensenville, Freeport, the Springfield district and Wood Dale.

Congress adopted pre-treatment regulations in 1972, but the EPA did not issue rules until 1978. Under these rules, municipalities were expected to control toxic chemicals in sewer systems by July 1, 1983. Because so many districts missed it, the deadline was extended to Sept. 30, 1985.

``Pre-treatment was established to prevent toxic pollution from interfering with sewage treatment plant operations, to prevent toxic pollution from passing through a treatment plant without being treated and to prevent toxic contamination of sludge generated by a sewage treatment plant,`` Hartian said.

The EPA spokesman said another goal was to avoid explosions in sewage treatment plants where industrial chemicals might mix.

The regulations call for sanitary districts to show that they can identify industries dumping chemicals into sewers, that the types of chemicals and amounts discharged are known and that such discharges are being monitored regularly. The sanitary districts also must show they have legal authority to act against industries that violate discharge limits for dangerous chemicals. Tighter controls over chemicals in sewer systems were found necessary after industries were told in the 1970s to stop polluting lakes and streams. Under federal guidelines, industries were encouraged to send wastes to sewage treatment plants.

Industrial wastes can damage treatment plants. They also can pass through the treatment process and poison the lakes and streams into which they are poured. EPA also is concerned that sludge from sewage drying operations has been found to contain high levels of toxic chemicals, making it a toxic waste.

Indiana`s 14 delinquent systems include those in East Chicago, Gary, Hammond and South Bend.

In Michigan, the Wayne County Sanitary District, the Midwest`s second largest, also is delinquent.

Hartian said $10,000-a-day fines can be counted since the 1983 deadline for pre-treatment controls.